Entry 008: [Shapely and Beyond]

LOCATION: Orbiting Shapley 1 B, Shapley 1, Anarchic Space, Inner Orion Spur
REPORT TYPE: Expeditionary Update

Captain's Log.
The Avenger has arrived in the Shapley 1 system, our first stop on the way to Waypoint 1. Two days of travel through the black can be rather boring, but we're lucky for the journey to be uneventful, based on recent reports. The portion of the Expedition that is ahead of us have apparently already completed the construction of the outpost that was planned, supplying it with material and workers in record time. From what we've heard over comms, the station already is providing outfitting services for ships and that a detention center has been constructed nearby as well, providing security for the area. A memorial service is also being planned to honor those who fell early due to pirate or rogue CMDR attacks. We're counting ourselves very lucky that we're not on that list.

The crew's morale is surprisingly high, despite the seemingly-endless space travel, stars and planets whizzing by, but not much else happening. At least we have each other to talk to. This long without civilization is likely to drive lone CMDRs mad with boredom. Keve is even in good spirits, taking notes on all the planets we pass, and spearheading our use of the fuel scoop since it falls within his purvue as planetary science.

Fuel scooping is perhaps the most boring thing we've encountered, despite being massively helpful for exploration. We were only able to attach a very basic scoop onto the Avenger at Pallaeni, and thus filling our reserve takes a long time. It provides a good opportunity to talk though and take in the sights of a new system.

Shapely 1 is remarkable. There's not much in the system outside of its two stars, but the main one, Shapley 1 A, is a massive Wolf-Rayet star, blue-white and ominous in size. Keve tells me it is nearly 7200 years old, and many many times the size of Sol. We had initially thought about trying to scoop some fuel from it, but the radiation and temperature were too great, so we have moved to Shapley 1 B instead. I write this as we slowly orbit the star, waiting for our fuel cells to be refilled. The operation is a slightly dangerous one as we need to constantly keep an eye on the hull temperature, but otherwise, it is simple enough. Close to our next stop we know of a station called Hillary Depot and plan to stop there in the hopes of upgrading our fuel scoop to speed up our expedition. I expect the next update to be from that station.

[LOG END]